The Scorched Earth

04/07/2011

Tony Abbott makes the claim that minority government is a failed experiment. He is, as he has been on several issues, wrong.

The Australian constitution was designed for a reason. The governance of the country. In that aspect, it does not favour a party. The electorate chose what the electorate chose. You cant ask for a re do. You got to make do with what the people give you.

The result of a hung parliament was not however just the result of the vote of the public. Oh no. Behind the scenes of both party machines spun the machinations of the preference game.

Like the retreating Germans under assault from the enemies, they resorted to a scorched earth policy. A “if we cant win, you wont either” childishness that makes up for 99% of political strategy.

And while the coalition will continue to spin and smear the Greens, they were, for the large part, responsible for their seat wins.

The seat of Melbourne in the House of Representatives was the first the Coalition scorched not wanting the ALP to have more seats then them. In so doing, the first member of the Australian Greens party was elected into the lower house.

They followed this up with preferences to Lee Rhiannon in NSW and two others. That’s three out of the four Green senators were given Coalition preferences.

I am sure the ALP also played its fair share of scorched earth in its struggle to stop the tide that nearly tipped it out of government and into an effective three year 24 hour 7 day a week hot potato.

Luckily for the government, the coalition is in a right royal mess. While they worked well to utilise emotion, as the issues became more and more detailed, the weapon that was oh so sharp and deadly almost 12 month ago, has now turned into a dull bent weapon.

So bent that the tip of the weapon has on occasion and more frequently turned against the coalition through a series of failed stunts now seen as stunts.

Time is up. The coalition know it. A change in senate numbers means that they lose even the ability to throw bureaucracy in the way of legislation to delay it. Now comes the coalition’s greatest fear. Compromise.

Abbott is right about something that the last election showed us all. Just wrong about what. It was not minority government is a failure, but it is a two party system that is the failure. And it is because of the way the played the ‘game’ that a new party has significant power.

They also really should remember the rule of nature. When a earth is scorched, you will always get new green growth.